--> ABSTRACT: Onward Toward an Integrated Statewide Geological GIS, by L. H. Wickstrom and J. McDonald; #91021 (2010)

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Onward Toward an Integrated Statewide Geological GIS

WICKSTROM, LAWRENCE, H., and JAMES McDONALD

Since the first commercial oil well was drilled in Ohio in 1860, over 250,000 oil and gas wells have been drilled in the state. The Ohio Divisions of Geological Survey and Oil and Gas are now in a combined effort to bring all current and historical well records into a computerized database. Several unique conditions cumulate in our state to make this project very challenging: (1) The well records span over 100 years, and records of different vintage contain different attributes; even common attributes are located in diverse locations on the records. (2) Many old wells have never been located on a map. These must be sorted into locatable versus nonlocatable records. Those which can be located must be hand spotted on maps to obtain coordinate values. (3) Various state and nonstate entities have assigned well identifiers using different schemes at different times. These must all be unified into one API well system. (4) Ohio was a test case for various land subdivision schemes. Nine different subdivision areas contain everything from undivided lands to irregularly shaped polygons to square-mile sections. Prior to this effort, a digital base of these land subdivisions did not exist.

Concurrent with oil and gas well digitization and database development, the Ohio Geological Survey is developing databases for many other types of geologic records, including coal, bedrock and Quaternary mapping, industrial-mineral mine data, Lake Erie sediment transport, and shore erosion. These seemingly disparate data types have two unifying aspects: they are all valuable geologic data and they are all spatially related. The Ohio Geological Survey is now uniting these various databases and tables using Geographic Information Systems technology.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91021©1997 AAPG Annual Convention, Dallas, Texas.